They’re about to be New York City’s Smoothest.
The NYPD is going “old school” when it comes to the facial hair and uniforms of police officers, according to a new video obtained by The Post.
The video shows Chief of Patrol John Chell talking to members of department brass during a CompStat meeting at One Police Plaza last week.
“Uniform changes are coming rather quickly,” Chell tells the bosses in the video. “No more beards in about a week. No open collars in about a week. We’re going back to weather restrictions on knit caps.”
“Basically, what I’m telling everybody in this room is we’re going back old school,” he says.” We’re going to bring back some traditions that we kind of lost in the past couple years.”
The NYPD has relaxed its facial hair and uniform rules over the years.
In 2016, the department — in a nod to a growing Sikh population of officers — said cops could wear beards and turbans while in uniform, as long as the turbans were blue. Over time, even cops without religious exemption also grew beards.
The NYPD also began allowing officers to wear warmer knit caps over their police hats during frigid weather. The Finest also dumped ties with uniforms to the chagrin of some traditionalists.
One longtime cop said he thinks the changes are needed.
“It’s absolutely ludicrous that you have an officer with pink hair and nails longer than their fingers,” the Manhattan cop said. “We’re a police department not a hip hop department. Let’s go back to being police
officers.”
Retired NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he was also in support of the move.
“I was against all the beards,” he said.
“It’s about a sense of pride,” he said. “This is absolutely a necessary aspect about showing a good front to the community because I think once the cops look good that comes with a modicum of respect because people perceive if you look like a slob they treat you like one.”
But a Manhattan police officer said he wanted to keep following the relaxed rules in at least one case.
“I like the knitted cap when it’s 32 degrees,” he said. “No one listens to us. No one cares anymore what we say. It is what it is. It is above my pay grade.”
A cop with a full beard said he would refuse to shave it off.
“I am not getting of rid of nothing,” he said with emphasis. “It’s for religious reasons.”
The city’s largest police union questioned if now was the time to worry about uniforms and personal grooming.
“The NYPD is understaffed by thousand of police officers and hundreds more are leaving every month,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said. “The department has much bigger issues to tackle. Is it really time to focus on beards and neckties?”
